BYO computer… Smokers work too hard… Air fare price war… Offline ads, online traffic… Email vs phone… Japan looks at new internet

• BYO computer
• Smokers work too hard
• Air fare price war
• Offline ads, online traffic
• Email vs phone
• Japan looks at new internet

BYO computer

In the same way the plumber brings a spanner to work, knowledge workers will be BYO-ing a computer to work in the future, according to international IT consultancy Gartner. Gartner predicts that by next year, 10% of companies will require employee-purchased notebooks.

“Just as company-owned cars ceased to be an integral element of the employee’s package, so company-owned computing devices, especially notebook computers and mobile phones, need no longer form part of the overall benefits package. Our research confirms that companies around the world are increasingly considering employee-owned devices to be formal business tools,” Gartner research director Robin Simpson says.

A 2006 Gartner survey of SMEs in six countries found that 42% had policies or schemes allowing personally owned computers to connect to the corporate network.

Not having to fork out for computers for your employees may sound like a good thing, but there is a downside – allowing a large number of “foreign” computers to log in to your system can present a massive security risk.

According to Gartner, businesses should prepare for employee-owned notebooks with a thorough review of security and adopt measures, including network access control, stronger authentication technologies and digital rights management.

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Smokers work too hard

Do you smoke? Finding it hard to kick the habit? You are probably working too hard.

A study has found that men are twice as likely to smoke if they work long hours, while women are more likely to smoke if they work in male-dominated, physically demanding professions.

Low levels of control over work, and psychologically demanding work, also make men twice as likely to smoke, reports The Australian Financial Review.

The study, based on interviews with 1100 Victorian workers, will be published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine this month. The lesson from it, according to Vic Health, is to address the stress, as well as the smoking, in attempts to quit.

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Aeroplane price war

Virgin Blue Holdings chief executive Brett Godfrey has predicted that Australian air travellers will enjoy lower fares over the next year thanks to fierce competition between Virgin Blue, Qantas and the foreign newcomers Tiger Airways, Malaysia’s Air Asia X, Oasis Hong Kong and Viva Macau.

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Offline ads bring online traffic

New research shows a mix of online and conventional marketing strategies may be most effective for companies, according to a new study by Jupiter Research and search marketing agency iProspect, reports ClickZ.

Almost 40% of respondents to the survey said a television ad prompted them to conduct an online search on a particular company, service or slogan, while 20% said a magazine or newspaper ad or a visit to a bricks-and-mortar store led them online in the past six months.

Only 33% of respondents said they had not been influenced to search online by any traditional media in the past six months. For daily searchers, the influence of old media was even more apparent.

The most common keywords searched were company names, or names of products or services mentioned in an offline ad. In 44% of cases, the keyword was the company name.

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Email vs phone: which do you prefer?

Email has overtaken the humble telephone call as the communication tool of choice in the workplace, according to a new global Datamonitor poll reported by iTnews.

The study found that 100% of respondents use email, followed by 80% who use fixed-line telephones, 76% who use their mobiles and 66% instant messaging.

Workers say that email improves their productivity most. Over 70% of people surveyed said that email has a positive impact on their productivity, followed by fixed line telephones on 53% and mobiles on 52%.

The research, which surveyed 390 IT managers and 524 enterprise users across 13 countries, found instant messaging to be among the most disruptive communications, and can have a negative impact on productivity if not managed properly.

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Japan building new internet

The Japanese Government will soon start research on a new generation network that would eventually replace the internet, according to Electronista.

Japanese communications minister Yoshihide Suga says that Japan will spend ¥7.8 billion in 2008 to kick off research and development, with a view to bringing the next generation internet into commercial use in 2020.

The envisaged network is expected to ensure faster and more reliable data transmission, and have more resilience against computer virus attacks and breakdowns.

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